Runner Code of Ethics

Yesterday I was faced with an ethical question. I have to do all of my running of soft surfaces as required by Anne and my dad (my dad said - "no running on anything but a track surface for 4 months"). This means longer runs are starting to get boring. Now, last Wednesday it was nice because it was snowing, and running in the snow, as long as there isn't a lot of snow on the ground, is pretty cool. Sunday, however, it was warm (30+), and I found myself at my bedroom with an important decision; do I bring music or not. The party line has always been no music. If you're running for real, and not just for fitness, you don't need music. I never use music on my runs, except during Red Sox games. However, faced with a dull 42 minute run at the Tufts track, I broke out the music player. I must say, even thought there were commercials half the time, I can see its allure. A good song can really get you going. At the same time, it distracts you from your thoughts, and I've always found that there are at least a few good moments of clarity on any run. This clarity gets shoved aside by the tunes.

Strangely enough though, the best song of the day, the one that induced the most endorphins, was "Cecilia" by Simon & Garfunkel. This is not a song I usually listen to, although it is quite good. By the time the singers were into the whoa oh oh ohhh oh oh section I was running 6:00 pace.

I think the music is acceptable while I'm still stuck to the track. Once we hit the roads again, the radio goes back in the drawer, except for the beloved Red Sox of course.

Celebrities

On Saturday night, Boston will host a very high-end elite track at my training center called the Boston Indoor Games. The link is bostonindoorgames.com. Anyway, since there is a collegiate tonight (Friday), many of the athletes appeared last night to get a look at the track before their races. Most notably, the Ethiopian contingent, featuring Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar (the top female 3K-5K women in the world) jogged around and did some striders. Their effortless strides made me nauseous. Additionally, John Godina, a many time Olympic medalist in the shotput, threw the shot around and gave a few pointers to the collegiates who were practicing at the same time (including a few members of our club). Due to a scheduling conflict, I'm going to miss the meet, and will have to catch it on the teevee the next day. My old teammate and acquaintance, Sam Burley, will be competing in the 800m. To use the old cheer, Go Sam Go.

Losing track of space

Some of the readers out there know that on occasion I've lost track of my spatial dimensions which has resulted in some silly incidents. On a camping trip in 2001 I once was looking into the trunk of a car and almost broke a tailight because my right hand was holding a spoon (as I leaned over, the spoon nailed the light). Yesterday was a similar type of goofball maneuver, which involves the ole' knee. I was at my club's annual track meet, retrieving a pen from my backpack which I had stashed under the bleachers (Harvard has pull-out bleachers). As I crouched down in a squat to come back out from under the bleachers, my right shoulder bopped into a corner, and my momentum suddenly went the opposite direction. My friends Sloan and Kit watched in horror as I fell backwards, my knee bending more and more. I had passing thoughts of the whole thing re-tearing. Luckily, it seemed to survive. However, I landed on my left hip, which was sore for the rest of the track meet, essentially a butt bruise. It feels better today.

You're not supposed to get injured on your off/rest days !

Fight the establishment

Yesterday I went to practice and started the usual routine, 30 minutes, then a fast mile, followed by a cooldown. However, after my 30 minutes, I noticed that a female member of a different club was doing her workout at the pace I was looking to run, so I jumped in. She (name is specifically Marisa Petrillo) was in the middle of 10-12x400 at 6:00 pace, and I did 6 with her. This is good, except it revealed a complete lack of cardio fitness. Lungs were all right, but my heart was racing. As for the knee, it was quite confused. I won't deny there was a little swelling. That being said, icing did very well, and it seems to be OK today. This type of workout was of course completely unauthorized, but I was getting bored and this seemed perfectly reasonable. Yesterdy was 10 weeks and it was high time I get in to some sort of workout. It didn't even hurt that much during the actual intervals, although we still had that problem of the top of my knee being tight (scar tissue, joint capsule etc.). Today, when I go to jog, we'll see what happens.

Update

As I'm improving, these posts are getting shorter and shorter. As has always been the case throughout this recovery, I've had a week of virtually no improvement followed by a week of dramatic improvement. From last Tuesday to today was a good week. Except for perhaps the first few steps, I pretty much don't have to worry about the knee anymore - it is time to talk about another problem, the lack of fitness. What I'd like to do is aim for next Tuesday (January 23) as the date for my first workout. This would obviously be at a very slow pace, probably with the distance women, but nonetheless it would be a workout.

On Saturday my yogurt exploded in my backpack all over my running shoes, causing me to use an older pair for a few days while the regular pair dried out from the clean-up rinse. The old Asics felt so much better than the Mizuno's. I'm definitely going back to Asics when the pair of Mizuno's are at the end of their shelf life.

The Netherworld

Well kiddies, I've now reached that always fun part of rehab, that being where no one really has any definitive answers. Gone are the protocols, the simple exercises, the endless icing. Now we're in the "use pain as your guide" phase, which is a road I've been down before. Anne did have some helpful reminders at my last PT session (adding a third day of lifting, a wacky hamstring stretching exercise that will help), but its up to me to figure out what I can and cannot do at this point. Based on Wednesday's excellent run, I'd say I'm getting better, but if I based it on Monday's run . . . not so much. We're in limbo, standing on the Pelennor Fields between good (Minas Trith) and evil (Minas Morgul). If you didn't get the reference from the last sentence, don't worry about it - it was a stretch anyway.

There is also the ongoing question of painkillers. People I have spoken with have said that starting an ibuprofen regimen might not be a bad idea (I haven't taken any). I need to consult with Dad on this one before making a decision. It should not be lost that my sensitive stomach may not tolerate long term use of Advil/Motrin/whatever. I found Aleve (naproxen) to be worse while in college.

Winter, Welcome Back

This week hasn't been that great in terms of improvement - felt awkward, still with the weird clunking femur-on-fibula sensation at the beginning, tightness in the back etc. Today at work however, the knee felt an ounce better. I stalled at home before going out to run because its finally winter here - when I went outside it was about 25 with a wind chill in the teens. Some minor discomfort below the knee at the start, but at around 13 minutes, 13:15 to be more exact, I felt this warm sensation around my knee; it was finally warmed up for the first time in 10 weeks, and I ran the remaining 27 minutes feelin' pretty good. My fast mile was a relaxed 7:30, and it was much smoother than the 6:59 (and after a day of lifting). I'm heading to PT tomorrow, armed with a few questions. This was an improvement today.

Broken Record

First off, this bizarre weather is starting to be a a scary broken record. Yesterday, the Patriots smoked the Jets . . . . and it was 55 degrees out. While my heating bill is about 50% of last year, this global warming issue officially has me scared, mostly because there are so many other problems in the world and I can't stop any of them. I do know that CO2 emissions primarily come from transportation and power generation, which is obtusely related to what I do . . . . but who knows.

My running is a broken record too. Lately, each run consists of 4-5 minute warm-up where my knee feels like complete garbage; it feels like my femur is crunching into the top of my tibia. This resolves itself, and I drop back into a relaxed jog at about 9:15 pace. Hopefully if I'm not limping, my left (good) quad doesn't get tired. at 30-32 minutes I try to run a fast mile, which last night was in 6:59 (thank goodness not 7:01). The swelling in my knee is still preventing me from 100% range-of-motion, and its awkward as well as tiring because I'm 10 pounds heavier and out of shape. I end up with 40 minutes of running, or probably about 4.5 miles. The back of knee continues to be stiff and not fully healed, and I need to do a better job of icing that area. I will talk to Anne about this on Thursday.

Thanks Tom

"The coach is mostly around to say 'Man, you're lookin' good today.'"
--Jack Daniels (a very famous coach)

Today I did my 32 minutes at the Reggie Lewis center in the company of my teammates. This being the beginning of January, we were joined by the distance squad that comes in from January to March. Our distance coach, goofball Tom Derderian, is known for being occasionally a little blunt. He also had (or still has) one true talent, which was being able to run obscene mileage (130-150 miles per week) without getting injured, which enabled him to run a 2:19 marathon in 1975. His coaching . . . . well, success with Tom comes with being a skeptic. This of course belies what I really enjoy about him, an unrelenting enthusiasm for running.

Anyway, after my jog, Tom was standing there watching his group run (he is having some plantar fascia issues, I think) and said something along the lines of how much I'm hobbling. I knew that my form had went down the toilet toward the end and I was limping, but I didn't think it was too bad. Anne had examined my gait last week and thought it was fairly close to normal (of course, that wasn't after multiple miles).

Me: I didn't look too good huh ?
Tom: You look awful. If you're thinking about doing a workout, don't.

Fantastic. Go Team.